I have always said music has the power to change things. Music is a powerful educational and emotional tool. Songs were probably one of the earliest mnemonic tools to help humans encode important information into our often unreliable memories.
Whenever I am feeling down or out of sync with life, I turn to music. In the grip of a powerful emotion? Music can help to change it or, depending upon one’s needs, amplify and reinforce it.
I think each of us has our go-to songs. Pieces of music that help get us back on track when we are out of sorts. I know I have several. Listing them here would take up more space than this column has room for, so I will confine myself to two of the big ones.
The song “Soft Parade” by The Doors is, for me, one of those big pick me up songs. A ‘theater piece’, one of the extended, multi-part songs incorporating different styles and themes for which The Doors were well known, when Jim Morrison finally barks out “We’re going great!” I too am usually doing great, or at least much better than I was when I first hit play.
Another favorite is “Idiot Wind” by Bob Dylan. Like a lot of Dylan’s music it is both universal and very open to interpretation. The entire song resonates with me, making it hard to pick out one clutch of lines, but these seem to suit the contentious times we live in: “I been double-crossed now For the very last time and now I'm finally free I kissed goodbye the howling beast On the borderline which separated you from me You'll never know the hurt I suffered Nor the pain I rise above And I'll never know the same about you Your holiness or your kind of love And it makes me feel so sorry.”
